Intel insists its innocence as it responds to antitrust allegations from the European Union

Intel revels in the glory of being the CPU industry leader, at least for the time being. However, like many industry leaders, they have found themselves the primary target of the crosshairs of criticism. Further, as with any company that is dominating the market, allegations of antitrust violations become a serious threat to the company worldwide.

At last Intel issued a response to the European Union and telling the Union to "bring it on." Intel's formal written response to the EU states not only its innocence, but also challenges EU regulators to hold a hearing to evaluate claims that it illegally used rebates to seize sales from AMD.

Despite Intel's feisty tone, Washington based antitrust lawyer David Balto, a former U.S. Federal Trade Commission policy director, stated that Intel faces a nearly impossible challenge in proving its innocence to the EU. He explains, "Intel is going to have a really significant challenge in the proceedings before the EU. The EU is much more sensitive to the long-term competition effects by
dominant firms and much less ready to accept simple snapshots of a
company's conduct."

As per EU regulations Intel may be fined up to 10 percent of its annual sales for antitrust violations. Microsoft initially tried to argue against the EU when it was hit with similar charges and the end result was a painful $690M USD fine. Intel has even more to lose as it is constantly price cutting to stay competitive and has smaller profit margins, which force it to engage in yearly layoffs.

Intel is also under investigation in South Korea and Japan following raids in these nations.

"Nowadays you can buy a CPU cheaper than the CPU fan." -- Unnamed AMD executive